Blackfeather Woods shorter of breath and one day closer to death

They slogged through the entrance and squished together for the rest, and Maegi's proximity helped to ease his worries but he found a strange warmth spreading through him. More so than their shared space, the narrowing of the dark corridor - he had felt it before but it was so out of place in this moment. Hormones? Now? Seriously.

But they soon stopped, and afterwards Maegi told him what she could of the first incursion of the Redhawks. It made him wonder if he had fought alongside them - if, once, they had depended on him. The look on the girls face might've been skewed by the dark but her voice, and its lilting emotion, kept Mou from losing focus.

It sounded horrible. He hoped he had no part in it - prayed to the gods of this forest, of the sea that had reworked him, to every force -- he demanded soundlessly that Maegi be protected. You save. He promised. I figh if I have to. I give dem me, dey can have me if it save you. No wah.